


And Hearts Will Be Glowing

by katayla



Category: Hidden Legacy Series - Ilona Andrews
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 19:43:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13107201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katayla/pseuds/katayla
Summary: Nevada and Connor's first Christmas as a married couple.





	And Hearts Will Be Glowing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [buhdderkupp](https://archiveofourown.org/users/buhdderkupp/gifts).



I slept in on Christmas morning. I couldn't count on regular waking and sleeping hours with my job, so I took advantage of the holidays. I'd only just moved to the point of thinking of getting out of bed when the door opened and my husband walked in.

His face lit up when he saw I was awake. "Merry Christmas, Nevada."

"Merry Christmas, Connor."

He strode over to the bed and leaned down to kiss me. Mmmmm. He tasted of coffee and doughnuts. I pulled him on top of me and we indulged in a long minute of kissing and I waited for the familiar trickle of magic to caress me.

Instead, he rolled off me and took me with him, setting me on my feet.

"Connor!"

"It's Christmas morning! Your family is waiting for you."

" _Our_ family," I said. Even my mother had almost stopped giving him threatening looks. "Who will understand."

And I stepped closer to him. Mad Rogan. Three months of marriage hadn't done a thing to diminish our reaction to each other and I saw the dragon spark in his eyes. I wrapped my arms around him and pressed myself against him. He drew me up and started walking us towards the bed . . . just as a herd of animals came pounding down the hallway.

"Leave them alone!" Grandma Frida's voice rang out. "They're newlyweds!"

"It's _Christmas_ ," Arabella said. "Presents!"

"I think you mean family togetherness." That was Mom.

The herd stopped outside our door and I could hear whispering.

"I'm not going in," Bern said.

"Me either," Leon said. "Once was enough."

They had all stayed with us while the new family home was being built and it had finally made the concept of knocking sink in.

I could hear more furious whispering, too low to make out, and then a firm knock sounded and at our welcome, Connor's mother opened the door. She had Connor's golden looks, but the dragon had settled down in her. She'd defeated her enemies and retreated to the castle. And she had embraced me from the moment I met her.

"Don't be rude to your guests, Connor," she said.

"She's the rude one!" Connor pointed at me and then wrapped his arm around his mother's shoulders. "So what did Santa bring us?"

Downstairs, our twelve-foot tree was dwarfed by the pile of presents that had suddenly quadrupled overnight. I stood in the doorway, crossed my arms, and glared at Connor.

"What did you do?"

"You have a big family!" he said.

"I told you not to go overboard!"

"I promise I exercised restraint." 

He grinned at me and I rolled my eyes. I'd _thought_ we'd done our Christmas shopping for the family together, but clearly someone had snuck off without me and bought out several stores.

"Come on, Nevada," Catalina said, patting the couch next to her. "It's Christmas."

"So I keep hearing," I said.

The funny thing was Connor probably _had_ exercised restraint. He'd given me our mortgage as a wedding present. (Waiting, of course, until after the vows were said so I couldn't back out or accuse of him of manipulating me.) He'd set up college funds for the younger kids and I knew he was behind the unexpected scholarship that paid for the remainder of Bern's schooling.

With that in mind, it was a surprise he hadn't bought each of the kids a car and a pony to go with it. At least, I was pretty sure he hadn't. Maybe I should look outside.

We took a break halfway through opening presents to eat the coffee cake Connor had made. And the muffins. And the scones. I raised my eyebrows at him. "When did you even have time to make all of this?"

"I woke up early."

"Uh-huh."

Conno's preparation for Christmas had made my family take to calling him Mad Rogan again. He baked, he decorated, and he tried to put a Christmas tree in every room of our huge house. (We'd compromised on five trees.) He'd showered my family with gifts and attention. And his mother had watched him with softness in his eyes. ("He's making up for lost time," she told me once.)

After all the presents were open and everyone was occupied with cleaning up the wrapping paper--or, more accurately, with throwing balls of wrapping paper at each other (Leon never missed)--Connor slipped a box into my hand. I gave him a look.

"What is this?"

A ball of wrapping paper arced towards us and then sped away. And Connor leaned back on the couch and said nothing.

"You know you already got me a ring, right? _Two_ rings." And I waved my left hand in front of his face.

"Boring rings," he said.

"You did _not_ just call our rings boring." After sending him mountains of texts suggesting _sensible_ rings, Connor had presented me with an engagement ring with a surprisingly small diamond. I was sure it cost more than all of the cars I'd ever owned put together, but at least I could pretend that wasn't the case. Our wedding rings were simple silver bands. Or at least _looked_ simple. I had my suspicions about those, too.

"Rogan."

He made a face. I hadn't called him that in months.

"I respected your wishes," he said. "I got you a boring--"

" _Sensible_."

"--ring you could wear every day. But you deserve this, too." And he brushed a kiss on my cheek.

So I opened the box.

"Oh, _Connor_."

A blue-green diamond sparked up at me, the exact shade of the Tear of Aegean. How had he managed to pull that off? He took it out of the box and slid it onto my finger. I spread out my hand. It didn't dwarf my other rings. The small sparkle and the blue-green gleam looked like they belonged together. 

I put my hand on his cheek. "You're terrible."

"You love me."

I pressed a kiss against his lips. "That, too."

"Merry Christmas, Nevada."

I snuggled under his arm. "Merry Christmas."

And all around us, our family laughed and played.


End file.
